THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Undergraduate Course: Muslims in Europe (IMES10098)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course explores how the 'Muslim question' is framed across Europe - through the concepts of multiculturalism, secularism, integration and security - and how Muslims make sense of what it means to be Muslim and to practise their faith in Europe. Drawing on a range of case studies from across Western and Eastern Europe, and on scholarship within the social sciences and humanities, the course also investigates past and contemporary modes of studying and representing Muslims in Europe.
Course description In this course students will learn to engage critically with various forms of governance around Islam and Muslim populations in Europe, and to analyse the lived experiences of Muslims across the continent. The course will draw on a wide range of research from across the social sciences and humanities - including sociology, anthropology, history and political science - to evaluate different ways of researching and representing the varied and hybrid experiences of Muslim populations in Europe. It will consider Muslims in Western European countries such as the UK, Germany and France, where Muslims came through migratory routes, but also those in Eastern European countries such as Bosnia, where Muslims are indigenous populations. Within these settings, it will draw on accounts of diverse Muslim populations including, for example, South Asians, Turks, Somalis, and Arabs, and explore processes of historical, socio-political and economic change experienced by these communities.

The course is structured thematically and may include, but will not be limited to, the following topics: secularism, integration and multiculturalism; security and radicalization; Islamic revival in Europe; making Muslim spaces; piety and gender; Islamic authorities and sharia; Islam and popular culture; Islamic guidance and counselling; transnational connections beyond Europe.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements The course is for 3rd and 4th year students only. Before enrolling students on this course, you are asked to contact the IMES Secretary to ensure that a place is available (e-mail imes@ed.ac.uk)
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesVisiting Students should have at least 3 courses in a suitable subject area at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  16
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework 100%

1. 1,500 word essay (40%)

2. 3,000 word research project design on an aspect of Islam in Europe (60%)

Feedback -Oral comments provided by lecturer, and written comments from peers on formative class presentations.
-Individual written feedback on essay and final research project design provided by marker.

No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Explain and analyse, by drawing on scholarly texts, Muslims' experiences of living in Europe, both past and present.
  2. Analyse the different modes of debating and governing difference and plurality in Europe, and assess and evaluate how they apply to Muslims.
  3. Evaluate the different disciplinary approaches to the study of Muslims in Europe.
  4. Apply and support arguments using appropriate theoretical and empirical literature from across the social sciences and humanities.
  5. Design a research project on an aspect of contemporary Islam in Europe through a given disciplinary approach
Reading List
Indicative reading list:

Essential:

Allievi, S., and Nielsen, J.S. (eds). (2003). Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe. Leiden: Brill.

Asad, T. (2002). 'Muslims and European Identity: Can Europe Represent Islam?' In The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union. Edited by A. Pagden, 200-277. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bowen, J.R. (2004). 'Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30 (5): 879-894

Cesari, J. (2009). Muslims in the West after 9/11: Religion, Politics, and Law. London & New York: Routledge.

Göle, N. (ed.) (2013). Islam and Public Controversy in Europe. London: Routledge

Meer, N. (2015). Citizenship, Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism: The Rise of Muslim Consciousness. Basingstoke: Palgrave (2nd Edition).

Modood, T. et al (2006). Multiculturalism, Muslims, and Citizenship: A European Approach. London: Routledge

Nielsen, J.S., and Otterbeck, J. (2015). Muslims in Western Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Norton, A. (2013). On the Muslim Question. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Ramadan, T. (1999). To be a European Muslim: A Study of Islamic Sources in the European Context. Leicester: The Islamic Foundation.

Roy, O. (2004). Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press.

Recommended:

Asad, T. (1997) ¿Europe against Islam: Islam in Europe.¿ Muslim World 87 (2): 183-95.

Allen, C. (2010). Islamophobia. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.

Allievi, S. (ed.) (2010). Mosques of Europe. Why a Solution Has Become a Problem. London: Alliance Publishing Trust.

Asad, T. (2003). Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bowen, J. R. (2008). Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bowen, J. R. (2016). On British Islam: Religion, Law, and Everyday Practice in Shari'a Councils. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bringa, T. (1995). Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

van Bruissen, M. and Allievi, S. (eds) (2012). Producing Islamic Knowledge, Transmission and Dissemination in Western Europe. London: Routledge.

Caeiro, A. (2010). 'The power of European fatwas: The minority fiqh project and the making of an Islamic counterpublic.' International Journal of Middle East Studies, 42 (3), 435-449.

Cesari, J. (ed) (2014). The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cesari, J. and McLoughlin, S. (eds) (2005). European Muslims and the Secular state. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Cooke, M., and Lawrence, B. (eds) (2005). Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop. Chapel Hill and London: University of California Press

Eickelman, D.F. and Piscatori, J. (eds) (1990) Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination. University of California Press.

El-Tayeb, F. (2008). 'The Birth of a European Public: Migration, Postnationality, and Race in the Uniting of Europe.' American Quarterly 60(3), 649-670.

Ewing, K. P. (2008). Stolen Honor: Stigmatizing Muslim Men in Berlin. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Fernando, M.L. (2014). The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism. Durham: Duke University Press.

Fetzer, J.S., Soper, J.C. (2005). Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Ghodsee, K. (2010). Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gilliat-Ray, D. S. (2006). 'Educating the 'Ulama: Centres of Islamic Religious Training in Britain.' Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 17 (1):55-76.

Göle, N. (2012). Decentering Europe, Recentering Islam. In: New Literary History 43 (4), 665-685.

Haddad, Y.Y. (ed). (2001). Muslims in the West. From Sojourners to Citizens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hall, S. (1992). The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power. In Formations of Modernity. Edited by S.Hall and B. Gieben, B. Wiley Publishers.

Hellyer, H.A. 2009. Muslims of Europe: The 'Other' Europeans. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Herding, M. (2014). Inventing the Muslim Cool: Islamic Youth Culture in Western Europe. New York: Columbia University Press.

Jacobsen, C., M. (2010). Islamic Traditions and Muslim Youth in Norway. Leiden: Brill.

Jouili, J. S. (2015). Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Kortmann, M and Rosenow-Williams, K. (eds). (2013). Islamic Organizations in Europe and the USA: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Palgrave Macmillian.

Kundnani, A. (2012). 'Radicalization: The Journey of a Concept.' Race and Class 54 (2): 3-25.

Liberatore, G. (2017). Somali, Muslim, British: Striving in Securitized Britain. London: Bloomsbury (LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology).

Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of Piety : The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mandaville, P. G. (2001). Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. London: Routledge.

Meer, N. (2013). 'Misrecognising Muslim Consciousness in Europe', Ethnicities, 12 (2), 178-196.

Meer, N. (2013) .'Race, Culture and Difference in the Study of Antisemitism and Islamophobia', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36 (3), 385-398.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2013). 'Beyond "methodological Islamism"? A thematic discussion of "Islamic" immigrants in Europe', Advances in Applied Sociology, 3 (7): 307-313

Metcalf, B.D. (1996) Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press.

O'Toole, T & Meer, N. et al., (2015). 'Governing through Prevent? Regulation and Contested Practice in State-Muslim Engagement', Sociology 50(1): 160-177.

Ozyurek, E. (2014). Being German, Becoming Muslim: Race, Religion, and Conversion in the New Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pedersen, M., H. (2014). Iraqi Women in Denmark: Ritual Performance and Belonging in Everyday Life. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Salih, R. (2004) ¿The Backward and the New: National, Transnational and Post-
National Islam in Europe.¿ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30 (5): 995-1011.
Salih, R., and Moors, A. (2009). ¿Muslim women in Europe: Secular normativities, Bodily performances and Multiple Publics.¿ Social Anthropology 17 (4): 375-378.

Stolcke, V. (1995). Talking Culture: New Boundaries, New Rhetorics of Exclusion in Europe. Current Anthropology, 36 (1), 1-24.

Schiffauer, W. (2006). Enemies within the Gates: The Debate about the Citizenship of Muslims in Germany. In Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach. Edited by T. Modood et al. London: Routledge

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. Penguin Modern Classics.

Werbner, P. (2004). Pilgrims of Love: The Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult. London: Hurst Publishers.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills 1. Critical analysis and evaluation skills through academic essay writing, seminar discussions and exercises.
2. Application of knowledge and understanding through seminar discussions, in-class exercises, presentations, and research project design
3. Oral communication and presentation skills and use of ICT to support the presentation
4. In-class group work and peer-learning through delivery of written feedback to peers
KeywordsIslam,Muslims,Europe
Contacts
Course organiserDr Richard McNeil-Willson
Tel:
Email: richard.mcneilwillson@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Anne Budo
Tel: (0131 6)50 4161
Email: a.budo@ed.ac.uk
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